inShare1 EmailMoreThe upcoming U.N. vote to ratify the declaration titled "End Violence against Women" has rankled Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, so much so that they released an official statement on their English language website.They call the declaration "euphemistically" named.They say it's misleading, deceptive, and will unravel the very fabric of the civilized world.The rights they don't want to see include:1. Granting girls full sexual freedom, as well as the freedom to decide their own gender and the gender of their partners (ie, choose to have normal or homo- sexual relationships), while raising the age of marriage.2. Providing contraceptives for adolescent girls and training them to use those, while legalizing abortion to get rid of unwanted pregnancies, in the name of sexual and reproductive rights.3. Granting equal rights to adulterous wives and illegitimate sons resulting from adulterous relationships.4. Granting equal rights to homosexuals, and providing protection and respect for prostitutes.5. Giving wives full rights to file legal complaints against husbands accusing them of rape or sexual harassment, obliging competent authorities to deal husbands punishments similar to those prescribed for raping or sexually harassing a stranger.

6. Equal inheritance (between men and women).

7. Replacing guardianship with partnership, and full sharing of roles within the family between men and women such as: spending, child care and home chores.

8. Full equality in marriage legislation such as: allowing Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men, and abolition of polygamy, dowry, men taking charge of family spending, etc.

9. Removing the authority of divorce from husbands and placing it in the hands of judges, and sharing all property after divorce.

10. Cancelling the need for a husband’s consent in matters like: travel, work, or use of contraception.As if this set of rules isn't scary enough, there's a decent swath of America who would agree with these reasons.

It’s no secret that Egyptian slavery is as old as the pyramids. It’s also common knowledge that Barack Obama’s ancestors owned slaves.

Slaves in Africa – in the early 20th century.

So it’s really no surprise that he helped usher in a radical Egpytian regime that is restoring slavery. According to the AP Egypt’s new constitution has dropped its ban on slavery:

Omissions of certain articles, such as bans on slavery or promises to adhere to international rights treaties, were equally worrying to critics of the new draft, who pulled out from the panel before the vote.

I Witnessed A Brutal Beating From A Hotel Overlooking Cairo's Tahrir Square

Robert Johnson|Mar. 28, 2013, 7:03 AM|3,323|8

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Robert Johnson/Business InsiderThe Arab Spring, where citizens all over the whole Middle East caused powerful governments to listen and even topple, didn't ignite at Tahrir Square here in Cairo, but it's certainly where the revolution blazed hottest.

Last evening on the communal balcony of my hotel (where the WiFi is strongest) about 50 yards from the square, I posted the first few photos of my trip from the airport. The pictures show the frustration evident by the people here and as I did that a conflict broke out in the square.

It turns out the "square" isn't actually much of a square so much as a patch of dirt, bordered by an 18-inch concrete curb, surrounded by a traffic circle (pictured right). Strings of large spiked barbed wire had been strung across street entrances, yesterday afternoon after police removed the barricades square dwellers had put up.

The drivers trying to get through expressed varying degrees of anger and frustration. I'm not sure that's what started the conflict seen in the pictures below, but it's possible. What my contact here assures me, is that whatever happened it wasn't revolutionary related, and things like this are not uncommon.

So while the photos were uploading, and I sat on the balcony, shouting erupted from the square. There were a few loud, soft bangs, which I assumed at the time to be backfiring vehicles or a very old firearm. Sitting here today, I've not heard any cars backfire so it may be less common than I thought.

After the bangs people ran down the street below the balcony, and at the end of the running group, a small band of men carried another man, who dangled from their arms bleeding.

A series of phone calls was made, a red pickup truck came screeching through downtown traffic and the group of men piled in the back. The wounded man's arm dangled from the bed as they drove away.

While they were loading him in the bed of the truck, the street was filled with the sounds of a wailing woman, walking from the square, her screams bouncing off the old stone buildings around us.

Perhaps a family member, she flung herself against a parked car, as the truck took off and a small boy chased it.

My contact lived in a tent in the square for four months with a group of other smart and driven men I met last night. He said he had no idea what could have happened here, but again it likely had nothing to do with his friend's goal of ridding the country of its latest president.

He just wants the violence to stop so the tourists will come back. Then, maybe, he thinks he can marry his girlfriend, have a family and start the life he always expected.

Short of Money, Egypt Sees Crisis on Fuel and Food New York Times ^ | 30 March 2013 | David D. Krikpatrick

Posted on Monday, April 01, 2013 10:29:52 PM by Lorianne

QALYUBEYA, Egypt — A fuel shortage has helped send food prices soaring. Electricity is blacking out even before the summer. And gas-line gunfights have killed at least five people and wounded dozens over the past two weeks.

The root of the crisis, economists say, is that Egypt is running out of the hard currency it needs for fuel imports. The shortage is raising questions about Egypt’s ability to keep importing wheat that is essential to subsidized bread supplies, stirring fears of an economic catastrophe at a time when the government is already struggling to quell violent protests by its political rivals.

Farmers already lack fuel for the pumps that irrigate their fields, and they say they fear they will not have enough for the tractors to reap their wheat next month before it rots in the fields.

United States officials warn of disaster unless Egypt soon carries out a package of tax increases and subsidy cuts tied to a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. That would persuade other lenders that Egypt was creditworthy enough to obtain billions more in additional loans needed to meet its yawning deficit. But fearful of a public reaction at a time when the streets are already near boiling, the government of President Mohamed Morsi has so far resisted an I.M.F. deal, insisting that Egypt can wait.

Those who say Egypt cannot afford enough fuel are “trying to make problems for Dr. Morsi and his party,” said Naser el-Farash, the spokesman for the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade and a fellow member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm.

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo shut down its Twitter feed Wednesday following a public fight with the Egyptian Presidency and the Muslim Brotherhood over the arrest of an Egyptian television star.

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"Sorry, that page doesn't exist!" reads the banner atop the site where the @USEmbassyCairo Twitter feed sat until this morning. A cached version of the page shows that the last tweet was a link to the Daily Show's Jon Stewart talking about the Egyptian government's arrest of Stewart's Egyptian doppelganger Bassem Youssef, who was detained and fined by the Egyptian police on the charge of insulting Islam and President Mohamed Morsy.

"It's inappropriate for a diplomatic mission to engage in such negative political propaganda," the official Twitter feed for the Egyptian presidency said on their own feed Tuesday. The Egyptian presidency tweet was directed at the Cairo Embassy, the Daily Show, and Youssef himself.

The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political wing of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, has been lashing out at Embassy Cairo repeatedly on its own Twitter feed.

A State Department official told The Cable Wednesday that the decision to take down Embassy Cairo's Twitter page was made by U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson without the consultation of the State Department in Washington. Foggy Bottom is urging Embassy Cairo to put the page back up, lest it appear that the United States is caving to the online pressure.

"This not a permanent shutdown. Embassy Cairo considers this to be temporary. They want to put new procedures in place," the official said.

This is not the first time Embassy Cairo has courted controversy via its Twitter account. On the fateful day of Sept. 11, 2012, Embassy Cairo put out a series of tweets seeking to calm the protests outside their walls. The campaign of Mitt Romney, the Republican challenger, seized upon those tweets to accuse President Barack Obama of apologizing for American values because the tweets referenced an anti-Islam video that contributed to the unrest.

The main Embassy Cairo tweeter at that time, Larry Schwartz, was blamed for the Sept. 11 tweets and subsequently recalled to Washington. But the combative character of the embassy's Twitter account continued.

The FJP also took issue with State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland's criticism of Youssef's treatment during an April 1 press briefing. Referring directly to Nuland's remarks about Youssef, the FJP said they are outraged at her "unreserved audacity" and her "blatant interference in the internal affairs of Egypt on an issue that is still under investigation" and is being dealt with through the Egyptian legal system.

UPDATE 12:20 : The Embassy Cairo Twitter feed is back up and running, although the controversial tweet in question has been deleted.

Egyptian doctors 'ordered to operate on protesters without anaesthetic'

Exclusive: Leaked presidential report recommends an investigation into the highest echelons of the army leadership

Senior Egyptian army doctors were ordered to operate without anaesthetic on wounded protesters at a military hospital in Cairo during protests against military rule, according to an investigation commissioned by president Mohamed Morsi. The report into military and police malpractice since 2011 also alleges that doctors, soldiers and medics assaulted protesters inside the hospital.

The findings, which relate to the army's behaviour during the Abbassiya clashes in May 2012, are the latest leak to the Guardian of a suppressed report investigating human rights abuses in Egypt since the start of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. Earlier leaks alleged that the military were involved in torture, killings and forced disappearances during the uprising.

The new chapter contains testimony from doctors and protesters about the treatment of injured demonstrators at the Kobri el-Qoba military hospital in Cairo in May 2012.

It alleges that a senior military doctor ordered subordinates to operate on wounded protesters without anaesthetic or sterilisation and reports that doctors, nurses and senior officers also beat some of the wounded protesters. It also claims that a senior officer ordered soldiers to lock protesters in a basement.

The chapter concludes by recommending an investigation into the highest echelons of the army leadership – a deeply significant development. Even though the report has not been officially published, its status as a presidential document – coupled with the extent of its conclusions – represents the first acknowledgment by the state of the scale of the atrocities both during and since the 2011 uprising.

"I can't overestimate the importance of this report," said Heba Morayef, the director of Human Rights Watch in Egypt.

Stickie this thread so when the Muslim Brotherhood takes over and things go south Benny can look like the leftist douchbag he is. Barry had no idea what he was doing.....if the economy was better that would get hell of alot more air play.

One stark change, for me, is the graffiti on the wall of the American University just off the square.

The wall once carried motivational slogans, nationalistic song lyrics and poems. Now, all I can see there are the faces of dead people, of those killed during the two years of the revolution. Some of them are quite disturbing. The faces have been deformed, apparently beaten up. Police brutality is alleged.

Most of the faces on the wall are those of young people. …

Of all Egypt’s problems, mass unemployment is the most pressing, and it is the young who are hit the hardest. …

Yes, also the so called "revolution" brought out all the sexually repressed virgins raping women in mass in public protests and gatherings. Hot western reporters were a rare delicacy might i add.

But no worries, soon the islamic brotherhood will instate sharia law, and pubic stoning and lashing will take care of pesky virgins willing to rape in public like it's a god damn gang bang clip on youporn.

Yes, also the so called "revolution" brought out all the sexually repressed virgins raping women in mass in public protests and gatherings. Hot western reporters were a rare delicacy might i add.

But no worries, soon the islamic brotherhood will instate sharia law, and pubic stoning and lashing will take care of pesky virgins willing to rape in public like it's a god damn gang bang clip on youporn.

come on dude..get off the soapbox.....rapes and sex assaults were always occurring in egypt....its just that our media wasn't interested....only now is this being talked about....also..we have the same thing going on here.....wherever there are men and women together there will be rape......when we colonize the moons of saturn, there will be rape there as well....however...I do think you are right when you say there are a lot of repressed virgins over there

come on dude..get off the soapbox.....rapes and sex assaults were always occurring in egypt....its just that our media wasn't interested....only now is this being talked about....also..we have the same thing going on here.....wherever there are men and women together there will be rape......when we colonize the moons of saturn, there will be rape there as well....however...I do think you are right when you say there are a lot of repressed virgins over there

CAIRO — With temperatures climbing, Egyptians are taking to the streets and the Internet to protest daily power cuts that have paralyzed cities across the country and generated fresh anger at the embattled government.

In a memo to the Cabinet, a local medical rights group said it had received at least 50 reports in just three days from hospitals complaining about equipment failures because of the blackouts. The Egyptian Center to Protect the Right for Medicine appealed for a quick solution, noting the diesel-powered generators at most public hospitals are old and unreliable.

A patient at the state-run Medical Research Institute in the coastal city of Alexandria reportedly died when the power failed in the intensive care unit. In Kafr El Sheik, a governorate north of Cairo, residents gathered outside a local hospital to help transfer newborns to another facility when 10 incubators stopped working recently.

The power cuts have also been a problem for thousands of students across the country who are preparing for their end-of-year exams. Governors in Cairo and other cities have urged authorities to refrain from cutting the electricity when students are taking the exams, but many complain it's hard to study when the lights go out and there is no electricity to run the air conditioning.

"It's difficult to focus when you're frustrated. That's the toughest challenge," said 17 year-old Ahmad Belal, who wants to be a heart surgeon and needs top grades to get into medical school. "Trying to concentrate on your studies but being interrupted every two minutes because the weather is hot or because you're angry you don't have electricity for most of the day just makes it impossible."

Belal lives in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, where he said the power cuts sometimes last more than four hours at a time. He studies by candlelight when the lights go out at home.

"Some of my friends go out to cafes, but it's always very crowded and loud, and it's also difficult to focus," he said. "Plus, the lights go out in cafes too."

Power disruptions are nothing new in Egypt, especially in the summer months, when consumption spikes. But this year’s blackouts are more frequent than in the past, often occurring several times a day and lasting for hours.

“God, I’m not asking you for a fancy villa, or the latest car model, or millions of pounds even … All I want is for the power not to go out,” wrote one frustrated Twitter user who goes by the handle @AmgdAboZeid.

The crisis is adding to the pressure on President Mohamed Morsi, who had promised to tackle the country’s ubiquitous power and fuel shortages, along with a host of other problems, in his first 100 days in office.

Hundreds of residents in Alexandria, Kafr El Sheikh, Aswan and other areas have taken to the streets in recent weeks to voice their displeasure, blocking roads and even railway lines while shanting anti-Morsi slogans, according to the independent daily Al Masry Al Youm. More demonstrations are planned June 30, to mark the first anniversary of Morsi’s presidency.

There have also been calls on social networking sites for Egyptians to refuse to pay their electricity bills until service improves, calls the electricity ministry said were "destructive."

A popular meme doing the rounds on Facebook complains: "Egypt is the only country in the world that collects money for the garbage that is filling the streets and the electricity that is always out from the salaries of its unemployed citizens."

Last week, the electricity ministry issued a rare apology, explaining in a statement that it had been forced to resort to load-shedding because consumption is outpacing production. It urged residents to ration their electricity use and said it was working with other departments to obtain the fuel needed to generate more power.